


cloud control

by whytho



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Lovely Little Losers AU, Multi, also known as go watch lll it's lovely, also known as i am indulgent as heck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-07-12 09:30:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7096873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whytho/pseuds/whytho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Blue introduces The Rules, it's not meant to be torture, it really isn't. </p><p>Henry's tapes will prove it. Maybe. Probably. Most likely.</p><p>(or: the Lovely Little Losers au that no one wanted but I couldn't help but make)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> k so this may be an au and I strongly suggest going and watching LLL but you totally don't have to to read this
> 
> also: will I ever just write a really long one shot? 
> 
> (nah)

When Blue first suggested The Rules, Adam almost approved. 

“I mean, it’s just sensible,” she told them all, curled up on the couch. “We need some _guidance._ ” 

Henry worried the skin on his lower lip and shook his head. “We need to have freedom.” Shaking their list at the lot of them, he added, “We need to be able to live our own lives.” 

Ronan snorted. “You just want to have a fuckload of sex.” 

Henry said nothing in response, just twisted his lips. Blue cut in, “Henry, he’s right. Honestly, your hookups are making it hard to sleep, and, well… We just need the rules, alright?” 

Adam ran his tongue over his teeth, saying nothing, and inspected the piece of paper before him. It was just a plain sheet of paper, really. It would hold no power in a court of law, despite Ronan’s threat to take it to his lawyer, and Adam didn’t really see why it mattered so much. 

He would soon see why. 

_From Henry’s vlogs; “Why have my flatmates done this”_

A camera shot flails around the flat, focusing in on faces and hands and a piece of paper for seconds at a time.

The voiceover starts- Henry’s voice, sounding dramatic and mournful. _Why would my lovely friends, the people I love and live with, do this?_ his voice asks. _What have they even done?_

The camera focuses on the paper in the center of the table. Writing clarifies: a set of rules.

_Good question._

The shot cuts to a shot of the kitchen. It’s mid-morning, maybe, and the light makes everyone’s cheekbones look amazing, but Blue is almost shouting in an attempt to calm down the rest of the flat. Voices mingle together and complaints are impossible to make out.

“Listen to me. Listen to me!” Blue shouts, and everyone else quiets a little. “Look,” she tells Ronan and Adam; she seems to be ignoring the camera. “We need these, okay? Just accept that a little, please. We’ve got enough... discord already.” 

Ronan scoffs; the camera swings around to him. “Please,” he says, lip curling, “This is just an excuse and you know it.” 

“An excuse for what?” Adam asks quietly. He’s almost hidden in Ronan’s shadows; the camera can’t even make him out. 

Ronan makes another noise. “An excuse to make us all eat broccoli,” he exclaims, “And- and an excuse to not be in a relationship with Gansey because you’re scared of commitment.” 

Behind the camera, Henry laughs softly and swings around to face Blue. Her face is turning pink. “That’s completely untrue,” she manages, then continues, “Besides, Adam and I are the only ones that cook anyways, and if we like plants then so be it! The food isn’t even very important. You just don’t want to vow off romance on the off chance you get a date.” 

Ronan flushes and begins to say something. 

Now the scene changes to three of them sitting on the couch, faces grave; the third is seated at their feet, looking like he’s on the edge of a rant. It’s clearly later now, too; the gray spilling out from the kitchen door tells of a rainy afternoon. Blue and Ronan, on the edges of the couch, wear identical miffed expressions; Adam is squished between them and rather nonplussed. Henry isn’t pouting, because Henry Cheng does not pout, but he’s close. 

“Well,” Blue says eventually. She clears her throat. “Who wants to do this?” 

Henry draws himself up. “I will,” he says, looking at nothing but the camera. He seems intent to ignore the rest of the room. “The camera is all I have left, seeing as you took everything else away from me.” 

Adam sighs. Ronan’s face is drawn.

Henry forges on. “You see, my darlings, my lovelies, the only people I have left in the world apart from Noah and Cheng Two, my lovely flatmates here have decided that we need some rules.” He shoots the rest of the couch a look. “Would you like a complete list?” 

Now the camera shows us a shot of The Rules hanging on the wall. Henry’s voice reads them off.

_Rule Number One,_ Henry’s voice says. _Stick to the budget._

The scene changes. Adam stands in the kitchen, clutching a packet of expensive kale chips. Blue and Ronan face him down, clearly intent on administering punishment. The dramatic music playing in the background don’t make the scene any less ridiculous, but it’s clear the matter is serious.

_Rule Number Two,_ the voice over continues. _Eat the food Blue and Adam make._

The shot moves back to the kitchen; this time, Ronan is pulling fast food out of a bag as the rest of the table eats. Henry leans forward to grab a french fry as Blue pulls her lower lip.

_If you don’t like it, sucks to be you, because it’s the fancy food that brings us above budget,_ Henry tells the audience. _Looking at you, Lynch. And Rule Number Three: Bonding!_

A cut to the living room, in which Adam, Henry, and Blue study while clearly not bonding. The atmosphere is not tense, just stiff, like they’re all strangers. Blue looks up from her notebook once, looking like she wants to ask Adam something, but the words die on her lips. She returns to her books. Dreary music floods the segment. 

Henry’s voice cuts in again as the scene switches. _Rule Number Four,_ he says, and now Adam is filling the screen as he takes out the trash. Looking up, he sees Henry and wrinkles his face up jokingly. Henry’s laugh is faint behind the music, and Adam smiles faintly until he notices the camera and drops the trash on his foot. _Do your chores and make sure the apartment’s clean._

The shot moves back to the original scene, with all four of them together, shoulder to shoulder, with an array of vaguely pained expressions. Adam looks no less uncomfortable, though Ronan is maybe slightly less miffed. Henry is, if possible, more indignant than before. Still staring straight at the camera, he intones, “No more calling the apartment a flat, no matter how tempting.” 

Blue nudges him. “That’s not an actual rule,” she tells him, and Ronan nods solemnly in agreement. He may be trying to rile her up, but Blue neglects to notice.

“You banned me from using it; that sounds an awful lot like a rule!” Henry protests, then sighs and straightens himself. “Whatever. But Rule Number Five -- the most important rule - is No Shenanigans.

“What does this mean, my dear viewers? I asked the same thing. Blue Sargent, the ruler of this fla- _partement_ has said that it means --” Henry paused dramatically -- “No kissing! No sexy times! And no romantic relationships!” He slides down the couch, stealing Blue’s pillow to press it over his face. Next to him she presses her knees to her chest and mutters, 

“It sounds bad when you say it like that.” 

Ronan stares at her for a few seconds. “Sargent, it sounds like a bad rule because it is one. We might want to see people at some point, you know. Parrish- he’s got tons of girls harping after him, and you’re basically dating Gansey.” 

Blue knots her eyebrows together, lips tight. “It sounds worse when you say it like that!” she says eventually, still frowning. “I -- It's complicated.” She glances at them and glares. "And none of your business, for the record."

Adam and Henry pull their mouths into skeptical lines, Adam's more unconscious than anything, and Ronan snorts. The couch is silent for a few seconds. The light spreading in from the kitchen goes darker, as if a rainstorm is coming, but only potential thunder couldn't match the electric tension brewing on the couch. 

“Have you even kissed?” Henry asks suddenly, shooting upright on the couch. “You could only be okay with this if you haven’t gotten to first base yet.” 

Blue does not answer; she's staring resolutely into the camera and appears to have gone temporarily deaf, even if her ears are turning red. 

Henry’s eyes go wide, but Ronan cuts him off before he can say anything. “So, yeah,” he tells the camera, suddenly harsh lines and tight shoulders, and Blue is no longer where Henry's attention is directed. “Now Cheng is filming us constantly in order to see if we break the rules.”

“Which no one but him is happy about,” Adams adds, staring somewhere above the camera like he can’t meet its lens.

Henry turns to him with a ready smile, as poised and perfect and slick as always, but cuts off when he sees the tightness in Adam’s neck. Mouth closing softly, he goes in for an awkward leg pat, but Adam nods at the camera, resolute, and he changes his mind. Blue is still staring at the lens with cheekbones tinged pink, but Ronan, on the other side of Adam, is watching the two of them with an unreadable expression on his face. It looks like one of closeness, or maybe the opposite -- the look of feelings being shut behind a door, behind an iron gate that could only be broken with Herculean strength. He coughs -- quietly, sure, but it’s enough to break the peace. 

“So, yeah,” Ronan says, words tight on his lips, and straightens his shoulders back into smooth, stark angles. “That’s that, losers. Hope you all enjoy getting videos of stupidity.” 

“Hey!” Henry protests as Ronan stands to turn the camera off. “It’s not --” 

The shot goes black. The people never hear what Henry's videos aren’t. 

Adam help Henry edit the footage, aided with a couple YouTube videos and a semester of computer technology. Hovering above him, Henry swears it'll be the last time, and gives Adam a gentle slap on the shoulder. "Thanks, man," he says, smiling broadly. "You're a funny dude, y'know? Should let the camera -- and _us_ \-- see that sometime." Adam smiles, albeit a little guardedly, and lets the door swing shut on his way out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to the lovely earthbornstarchild for betaing- honestly, what a bro. go follow them on tumblr; they're great. 
> 
>  
> 
> (if you're reading this, astin- do you have a ao3?)

Really, apartment life under dictatorship wasn’t that bad, Adam thought. It could be worse. 

He liked eating dinner with Blue and Henry and Ronan all together, all talking, even if Ronan snarled at everyone who spoke to him and Henry acted miffed the entire time. He liked the way the shadows fell across Blue’s face as she smiled and chewed green beans, and he liked the color of Henry’s laugh as he ate his way through biology homework. 

Chores were a bore, sure, but Adam didn’t mind taking out the trash. Even climbing down the hill with the trash was alright, apart from the smell, and anything was better than having to deal with the filth. 

The only thing Adam really minded was the cameras. 

The cameras were everywhere -- Henry had a habit of sneaking one into Adam’s room in the middle of the night, so he could wake up and face its ungodly black lens first thing in the morning, and then he had one in the kitchen, and the living room, and in the trash can… For a while Adam tried to discreetly stay behind Blue when he entered a room, but it didn’t do much good. It also made Ronan laugh at him, which, granted, Ronan did at a lot of things, but that was enough to get Adam to stop. 

And now there is a camera staring directly at Adam as he prepares himself for the only other thing in the rules he wasn’t looking forward to -- the games. _Of death_ , the part of his brain that sounds like Noah Czerny says, but he shuts that part of his brain up before it can wreck havoc.

“So!” Henry tells the camera, voice deep like a sport announcer, and Adam can hear the laugh behind his voice. “Now, my dearest darlings, it is time for the moment you have been waiting for! It is time… for team! Bonding!” 

“Was anyone waiting for this,” Ronan mutters. It's not really a question. Henry ignores him and continued.

“It is time for- Blue, get the hat.” 

With a crease between her eyebrows that clearly means she's gonna act like Gansey, Blue pulls her lips together and asks innocently, “A hat? I know nothing about a hat. Adam, do you know anything about a hat?” 

Henry half-smiles, half-sighs at her, reaching over to pull the hat out from beside Blue. It was, Adam notes, a remarkably smooth move, especially coming from Henry Cheng, who had a habit of tripping over his own thoughts when there wasn’t a Gansey around to translate. 

“And now, ladies and gentlemen,” Henry says, using his sports announcer voice again, “the moment you have all been looking forward to for what I’m sure must have been weeks... the drawing of a challenge!” 

“What the fuck, people,” Ronan mutters under his breath, though Adam's sure he's the only one to hear it. 

He's not sure, really, what happened after. Or at least, he doesn’t _understand_ what happened. 

 

From Henry’s vlogs: Flat Time fun!!

The camera is focusing, focusing in on the scene in the apartment living room and its occupants. As the shot clears, Henry’s voice is clear. _And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you have all been looking forward to for what I’m sure must have been weeks... the drawing of a challenge!_

Someone murmurs something to quietly for the camera to make out, but Ronan’s lips are clearly moving. Next to him, Adam makes a noise in the back of his throat, and Ronan glances over at him. His hand twitches in his lap, fingers and thumbs fidgeting for a millisecond. Adam doesn’t seem to notice. 

Hat in his lap, Henry clears his throat and pulls out one slip of paper. It’s pale green, the color of tree shoots and mint, and when Henry slips it open he groans. “Blue,” he says, pulling a pillow off her lap and stuffing his face in it, “Must we?”

Blue clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but she nods regardless. “...Yes.” 

Adam licks his lips, swallows, then reaches over to pluck the slip of paper out of Henry’s limp hand. “Oh,” he says, clearly relieved. “It’s just a breakfast challenge.” He throws a look to the rest of them, confusion knotting up in his brows, but doesn’t say anything else. 

Ronan snorts. Blue gnaws her bottom lip for a bit. Henry smiles sharply and tells them, “The breakfast challenge is-” 

The shot changes. 

Now, Henry is sitting on the edge of a bathtub, wearing nothing but a bed sheet and a trained smile. “My name is Henrigo,” he tells the camera, and it can tell that he is pulling someone- pulling another personality- over himself- it has seen enough of that to recognize it. “Today, I am your trusty guide to the breakfast challenge.” 

His voice drops to a whisper as the shot changes again, this time to a scene in the kitchen. Blue is pulling out some healthy, fruit-filled cereal, and Ronan has opted for the Lucky Charms. He grins at her, teeth sharp, when she scowls at his choice in breakfast foods. _Some other day I might be here for something else,_ Henrigo says to the audience. _As of now, though- the breakfast challenge._

Adam walks to the fridge to grab some milk- both two percent and whole. _Why would anyone need that much milk?_ Henrigo asks, then forges on. _Anyway. First, you need breakfast, aka cereal, and at least four people._

Form teams, Henrigo’s voice says as the people on the screen sort themselves out. They solidify themselves into Team Adam/Ronan and Team Henry/Blue in the end, though Blue looks uncomfortably short and Ronan looks uncomfortable. Henrigo’s voice is filled with obvious glee as he says, _One of you becomes the arms, and one becomes the mouth. The first team to finish two bowls of cereal like this wins._

The scene changes- back to the living room, though now everyone is silent. 

“Who wrote that one?” Adam asks, biting his lips. 

Twisting her hands together, Blue admits, “It was me.” Ronan glares at her. 

“You’ve gotta admit, though, Sargent, we’ve got this one in the bag,” Henry tells her, reaching across his body to fist-bump her. She complies, without looking at both Adam and Ronan. 

Ronan makes a noise of dissident. Adam wrinkles up his nose. 

The camera returns to the kitchen, where Ronan is gingerly shoving his hands through the crook of Adam’s arms, where Henry is laughing with his head on top of Blue’s. “I’m like a dinosaur,” he’s saying, and Blue is laughing along as Ronan scowls. Adam doesn’t appear to notice; he is too busy staring at the cereal on the table. The lines carved into his forehead are almost invisible in the kitchen light, but the dust inside his head is visible in through his eyes. 

“How do you do this?” Ronan asks Henry over Adam’s head. He’s joking; the camera can tell, but it looks like Henry can’t. Henry makes vague noises in response, and Henrigo’s voice announces, _The challenge starts… now!_

 

Honestly, Adam wasn’t quite sure how the whole mess happened so quickly. He was just eating some cereal, really, and Ronan was acting as his arms, and it was all in the name of apartment bonding, and then he knew why the mess happened so quickly. 

(He blamed Blue. Or Henry. Or Ronan.) 

It was good, though, because after the mess was cleared up he could sit on the couch with Blue and a full stomach in their wondrously warm living room, and the lamplight was turning Blue’s hair into an inky mess, and Henry’s smile was like another blanket on top of him, and even Ronan’s usual scowl was at least familiar. 

Really, Adam had no problem with The Rules. He could eat the dinners Blue made, and he could take out the trash, and he could manage the challenges. The only thing he couldn’t manage, really, was the cameras. 

 

After dinner that night, Henry turned his on to film a video in the living room, and Adam had to jump over the couch in order to get out of the shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yup. yeah. yup. 
> 
> talk to me on [ tumblr](%E2%80%9Dwhythowastakenwhatisthis.tumblr.com%E2%80%9D) if you wanna. or don't. (or do.)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was originally going to be like, a lot longer, bc i had some more stuff i wanted to fit in this chapter, but it's the longest chap yet so that's not happening.

The apartment continued on. 

Ronan broke the rules to eat Chinese takeout, and they all got to dump uncooked noodles in every bit of his food for the next week.

Henry posted a video that consisted of nothing but Adam hiding from the camera. Reportedly, it got quite a few views, though no one in the apartment watched it.

Blue forgot to clean the bathroom, and Adam rather enjoyed pelting her with cleaning supplies. 

 

When Gansey returned, Adam was sitting on the couch with socked feet and biology textbooks. When he heard the knocker, he was warm- almost too warm to want to get up and open the door, but he did it anyway, flipping his textbook closed and dodging the coffee table on the way. When he opened the front door, he was greeted by a Gansey smile, one as warm as the room behind him. 

“Adam!” Gansey beamed, then pulled him in for a tight hug. 

Adam melted into it. He hadn’t see Gansey in weeks, with summer and an assortment of week-long internships. He missed Gansey. He missed Gansey’s hugs. 

They clung to each other for a few seconds before pulling away, and Adam noticed Noah hovering in the doorway. “Hey,” he said to him, and Noah tackled him with his own hug. Adam laughed on their way to the ground, Noah wrapped around his neck, and over his head asked Gansey, “Does Blue know yet?” 

“I was going to surprise her,” Gansey said, striding into the living room, and took in the entire scene. He was still trotting the globe when they got properly settled in the apartment, and it was clear he was comparing the bleak scene of their original living room to the cozy space it later became. He smiled down at Adam and teased Noah, “Oh, let him breathe, Czerny.”

“Nope,” Noah said, face planted in Adam’s chest. “I’ve had Adam withdrawal for weeks; it’s been awful. I am clinging for the next several days.” 

Adam smiled. Noah, he thought, would be the only person he’d ever let cling to him for a few days, though mostly because he knew Noah could be leech-like when he tried. “You’ll have to wait till dinner to see her,” he told Gansey as he wrapped an arm around Noah. With his other hand, he lifted Noah’s legs to wrap them around his waist, then stood and walked back over to the couch. 

“Hmm,” Gansey replied. He shot Adam another brilliant smile, happy and larger than life and so _Gansey_ that Adam’s heart hurt. He missed them, even if he wouldn’t admit it to anyone but himself. “I guess I’ll just have to stay till then,” Gansey says cheerfully. “I guess I’ll just have to stay forever!” 

A door banged open. It was Henry’s- he was making another grandiose chip run, chattering over the sound of his head phones. Adam was pretty sure he hadn’t heard anything going on outside his door, but he still tried to make conversation on his way to the kitchen. Gansey and Adam watched him pass in amused silence, though Henry didn’t seem to notice. Noah began making contented noises in Adam’s side. 

On his way out of the kitchen, Henry told them, “And your new video got at least ten thousand views, Adam, you should be-” He stopped when he noticed Gansey curled up on the couch, his smile starting to pull at the corners of his mouth, and fell face first into a delighted grin. “Richard boy! You should have said something!” 

Gansey smiled at him, stretching his legs out over their carpet, and told him, “Oh, that would have ruined the surprise.” His face, too, has lightened at the sight of Henry.

Henry grinned back. Then he made his way over to the couch, wedging himself between Noah and Gansey- ‘for maximum warmth,’ he claimed when Noah made a noise of complaint- and placed the bowl of chips on Noah’s side. He talked with Gansey, low and murmuring, about English politics and the weather and Blue and other things Adam was too warm to care about, and the living room was bright and homey and Adam could feel his toes curling in his socks, satisfied. Noah was warm against his side, and Gansey was back, and his biology homework could wait another day. 

A door banged open. It was Ronan’s- he was standing in the door frame, his scowl on already, eyes hard. He softened when he saw Gansey, though not by much, and stalked over to the couch to demand, “Where have you been?” 

“All around the world, Lynch,” Gansey replied. 

Ronan considered this a second, mouth pulling down at the edges, then asked sharply, “Just got back today?” 

“Yes, Lynch,” Gansey replied. His smile had gotten even wider.

He took this new information in, then molded his spine into a brusque pose and, almost cockily, asked, “Came here first thing?” 

“Fuck off, Lynch,” Noah replied, head still buried in Adam’s sweater. 

Ronan grinned at them, joyful in a sharp, close to painful way, and crashed down on the floor next to them. He carelessly entangled his legs in Gansey’s and, almost effortlessly, joined in with Henry description of the classes. The two of them curve balled into a rapid fire discussion of the history teacher, all metaphors and anecdotes and arguments over said metaphors and anecdotes, and Adam listened to them and threw in an odd comment as Gansey and Noah relaxed into the apartment’s bloodstream. All of them, Adam thought, seemed content. Content and warm and lively, and then a door banged open. 

It was the flat’s- Blue stood in the doorway still wearing her work clothes, hair a poufy mess around her head. She startled when she saw a group of people curled up on the couch, all of them conversing willing- an unusual occurrence- and startled again when she saw Gansey and Noah. Gansey seemed to soak her in with his eyes, smiling a bigger smile than Adam had seen from him all night, and then they were rushing at each other- both Ronan and Henry made a noise of complaint at being disturbed, but they seemed investing in the situation in front of them. Gansey pulled Blue in a hug even tighter than the one Adam had gotten, and she was running her hands through his hair, and they were both muttering low, musical things to each other in a sweet, mildly disgusting way. 

“Looking at them makes me worried about being single all my life,” Noah remarked, muffled in Adam, feet knocking into Ronan's ankles. 

Ronan snorted; they both resumed watching the scene in the middle of the living room. 

Gansey had loosened the hug a little to stare at her, eyes wide, and said breathlessly, “I missed you.” 

Now Noah snorted. 

Blue breathed in deep, like she was inhaling Gansey’s scent, and stared right back up at him. “I missed you too,” she replied, breathy. 

Adam couldn’t help himself and let a tiny huff of laughter out of his nose. 

Gansey leaned down. Blue swooned up. There was no romantic music, but Adam could feel the loving, tender moment they were having as they gazed deep into each other’s eyes. He was feeling it, that is, until Ronan started making siren noises. Noah chortled. 

“Oh,” Henry said, as if it just occurred to him. “Gansey, have you not been watching the videos? We’re not allowed to…” he snuck a look at Ronan, who bursted out laughing, “... Canoodle.” 

Blue froze on her tiptoes. Gansey narrowed his eyebrows at her. “No,” he said eventually. “No, I was not aware of that.” 

“I can’t believe you haven’t been watching my vlogs, dude,” Henry moaned, but Gansey was too busy telling them, 

“I think Blue and I are going to have a chat. In the kitchen. Preferably with coffee.” None of them reply, and he glances back. "It's been a long flight," he says, "and also it's none of your business." 

"Missed our bro talks, too, Ganse-Trains!" Henry tells him, affection thick in his voice. 

Gansey doesn't even look back, just pulls Blue to the kitchen and shuts the door abruptly behind him. The silence that follows is thick, even by the apartment’s standards, until Henry sighs and slides down the couch. He only stops when he hit the ground, a pile of limbs and pouts lying almost on top of Ronan. 

“So, uh,” Noah starts, “what are these rules?” He was still curls up on Adam, hands locked onto his sweater, and looks confused. Understandably confused, thinks Adam, because The Rules didn’t make much sense in general, and they were never even explained to him. No Canoodling wouldn’t make much sense from an outsider’s perspective, something evident from Gansey’s slightly louder than usual voice. 

Henry sits up, already pulling out his phone. “The Rules,” he told Noah, “Are all right here in my vlog, which you’d know about if you actually watched any of them.” 

Noah pretends he couldn’t hear Henry and snatches his phone, furiously tapping at it until Adam points out the right video. Still half on top Adam, he watchs the video in silence, eyes wide, until the credits roll. Then he rolls off Adam, landing face-up on both Henry and Ronan. 

Adam’s sudden lack of Noah shocked him a little. “Um,” he starts. 

Noah smiled at him, once, like it would placate Adam. “Blue said no sexy times, right? Cuddling is basically sexy times.” 

“Now you’re acting like Ronan,” Adam protests, pulling a blanket over himself to make up for Noah’s missing warmth. He curls up under it, curls his toes in his socks, and Noah tells him, 

“Ronan’s right. These rules are going to make you guys self-destruct.” 

Ronan makes a noise of agreement, nodding, and Henry seems to agree, too. They had both, after all, disagreed with The Rules- Adam isn’t even sure why they’d signed the agreement in the first place. Henry hadn’t wanted to hear all of Ronan’s paramours and their…. noises through the walls, sure, but Ronan really had no reason to agree. 

At the sight of Adam's wrinkled forehead, Noah reaches over and patted his leg. “Hey,” he offers, “You don’t have any romantic interests, right? So, I mean, the only thing you’ve got to deal with is Mom and Dad fighting.”

Ronan lights up like a Christmas tree at the prospect. “You know we can’t even have people spend the night?” he tells Noah. “He’s gonna be _irritated_.”

“He wouldn’t be out of the loop if any of you watched my vlogs,” Henry tells them glumly, and Noah giggles, and Ronan joins Adam on the couch, and despite the voices coming from the kitchen, Adam's good, he really ss. 

(Adam doesn't notice Henry's camera until dinnertime, when stilted conversation leads to him pulling it off the counter to point just it at people. Ronan laughs at him for hiding behind Noah, which made sense, because Noah's a ninety pound anemic who physically can't even laugh, he just giggles, but he was also the closest person available.)

(Plus, Adam would laugh if Ronan tried to hide behind the ninety pound anemic that couldn't laugh, so he really can't complain.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ronan lynch: forgets where gansey and noah went three days into their journey and has no way to ask where they went without looking like a fool and must therefore be very sharp and grating and brusque and acts like he purposely forgot bc he doesn’t care when they return
> 
> also ronan lynch: is ronan lynch like what a dork what a humungous dorkalork


	4. Chapter 4

On their next challenge day, Adam found Henry in a bathtub. 

He was curled up, legs touching chest, telling the camera, “And then, Gansey drags her into the kitchen and we get to listen to the parents bicker!” He sighed. “Man, I love those guys. Oh -- oh! Noah brought me back a pet ferret! I’m not sure where he got it, but it’s the thought that counts, really --” He broke off when he saw Adam hovering in the doorway and smiled at him, patting the empty spot next to him. Adam raised his eyebrows. Henry waggled his eyebrows back, smirking a little, and patted the spot next to him again. 

Adam sighed and made his way over, nudging Henry with his foot until he scooted over, then carefully deposited himself inside the tub, taking care to arrange his limbs so he wasn’t stabbing Henry with an elbow or knee. Henry turned back to the camera. Adam stared somewhere at the ceiling. 

“And that’s that,” Henry said. He glanced at Adam from the corner of his eye -- Adam could practically feel it -- and added, “And now I suspect we’ve got another group bonding session, so. Any last words, Adam?” 

“Nah,” he replied, tilting his head back to let the cold bathroom air touch at his throat. 

“-- So I will bid you adieu, my lovelies.” 

Henry leaned forward and switched off the camera, then turned back to face Adam. He raised an eyebrow; Adam nodded, and Henry pulled himself out of the tub. Wordlessly, he offered a hand to Adam and pulled him up, and then, when both of them were standing, swung their joined hands between them.

Adam smiled. Henry grinned back, then dropped his hand, and the two of them left the bathroom. 

 

_From Henry’s vlog; oooooohwayooooooooooohwayooh_

The camera shows the apartment’s living room, grayer and bleaker than usual, with Blue, Adam, and Ronan squeezed next to each other on the couch. Blue is chatting animatedly, with Adam listening, and Ronan is picking at his bracelets. Henry’s voice floats out from behind the camera -- _It’s on, people!_ \-- and Adam and Blue snap to attention. Ronan just stares into the camera, long and scathing, and starts chewing his bands. 

Henry comes into view, large and blurry, then backs up til he can hit the couch and sprawl across several laps. Scowling, Ronan twists away from him; Henry ignores him and places The Hat on his sweater-covered stomach. With a grin, Blue reaches forwards to pluck a slip of paper out, and everyone, even Ronan, is silent as she unfolds it. 

Frowning, she squints down at it, then bites her lip. “It’s… bird facts,” she tells them, slow, puzzled. 

Chaos erupts. “What?” Henry asks, sitting bolt upright in Adam’s lap. The hat falls off his chest and into Blue’s legs, but no one seems to notice. Adam just groans, dropping his head in his hands, and Ronan smirks. 

“Who let Gansey in there, fuckwits?” he asks over Adam’s noises of agony. 

“Oh, like this wasn’t you, Lynch,” Henry replies, furrowing his eyebrows belligerently. “You literally own a raven.”

As if on cue, a cry from Chainsaw rolls out of the kitchen, and Ronan loses his smirk. “It could have been any of us,” he says shrewdly. “We literally went to high school every day with birds embroidered onto our uniform. Apart from you, Sargent,” he adds, then, a little bit quieter, “I doubt it’d be you.” 

“Thank you,” Blue says haughtily. “But like. Are we doing this or picking another one?” 

“Another,” Adam says, words muffled but his long hands. Henry nods once in agreement, decisive, then reaches over and grabs the hat again. This time he offers it to Ronan, who shoves his hand in with little ceremony. He draws it out; he reads it; he groans. 

Blue reaches over and plucks it out of his hands, wearing a face that says, It can’t be that bad. She reads it. She buries her head in her hands. 

“This challenge,” she mutters into her hands, almost too faint to make out, “is Chicken.” 

A second long pause; Henry bursts out laughing. “You’re kidding,” he says, repeats it. “You’re kidding.” Looking lost, Adam glances around with a confused half-smile, and Blue takes pity on him and draws his head into her shoulder. She closes her eyes, whispering sweet words of finality, and in an unexpected display of affection Ronan curls up against her other shoulder. 

Henry is still laughing. Tears are streaming down his cheeks. His breath is wheezing. The camera can’t tell if he’s choking or not. 

Eventually, the room goes quiet again. Blue lifts her head out of Adam’s hair; Ronan sits up straight again. Henry stops laughing/crying/wheezing. 

_...I really have no excuse for that,_ Henry’s voice says. _But hey, some say emotional breakdowns are entertaining._

 

They sat in a square, all four of them -- Blue and Ronan on the couch and Adam and Henry at their feet. Adam’s back was to the camera, so that he doesn’t need to look at it, but he could still feel it boring holes into his backside as Henry said, “Alright. first up, me and Adam.” 

Adam didn’t really get the rules of Chicken. He’d heard about in middle school, whispered at the one school dance he’d attended, but no one had bothered to explain the rules to Adam Parrish, and he hadn't really wanted to know. It’s a competition. No one likes it. It ruins friendships -- Adam got all of that, even if it all sounded exaggerated. What he didn’t get is what he was meant to do. 

So when Henry started leaning in, Adam leaned in too. When he moved closer, so did Adam, even if it was uncomfortable and a little weird, because Chicken seemed to be a staring contest. Henry leaned; Adam leaned. Henry stared; Adam stared. The seconds stretched out, like rubber bands pulled in two directions, as Henry’s eyes bored into his. Adam could hear his breath, and Henry’s, and Ronan’s and Blue’s and probably Gansey’s as he shopped for groceries halfway across the city. 

Finally, Henry broke away. “I can’t do it,” he moaned. “I can’t look at that face any longer. Blue, Lynch, you take over, I need a drink.” Then he stumbled off and into the kitchen, hopefully to get something nonalcoholic, and Blue and Ronan turned to face each other. It wasn’t as easy as it should have been- Blue kept giggling as she folded her legs, and Ronan couldn’t even meet her eyes. Chicken was, Adam thought, probably a euphemism for something, and that thought made him stand to join Henry for a drink. 

The kitchen floor was cold against his feet, the tile slick. Henry was bent over the open fridge, muttering to himself, and didn’t notice when Adam slid past him to lean against the counter. Apart from Henry’s muttering, the kitchen was silent; even Blue’s giggles next door seem muted and wavering in the cold, quiet kitchen. Chainsaw, on her perch in the corner, eyed Adam haughtily. 

Henry stood upright, the pitcher of lemonade in his hands, and startled when he saw Adam. “Jesus, man,” he told him, shaking his head, “You’ve gotta stop sneaking around like that, you freak of nature ninja freak.” 

Adam didn’t laugh at that, but, wanly, he smiled, and Henry clapped him on the shoulder as he went to get a glass. After a second of hesitation, he grabbed another, and set both down next to Adam to pour lemonade in them. 

Adam took his glass without a word. Henry did the same, then set the pitcher down on the counter with a loud thud and said, jarringly loud in the somberness, “So. Okay. I know I don't really get to ask this, because we weren't really friends when we moved in, and that wasn't long ago, but man, are you feeling okay lately?” 

Adam blinked. “Uh, yes? Just stressing and stuff, I guess,” he says, but it comes out hesitant. He winces. Chainsaw croaks a noise of what seemed like encouragement in the corner. 

Henry tilted his head down to look at him. “You sure?” 

“Yes.” That time, it was not a question. 

“Well.” Henry regarded him for a second more, then chugged down his glass of lemonade and slammed it back on the counter. “Better get back out there!” he called over his shoulder as he walked out of the kitchen, pitcher in hand again but without his glass, and Adam was left to put the cup in the sink and ponder the enigma that is Henry Cheng. 

Blue lost her match, she told Adam when he walked back out. Ronan looked almost pleased by it, though Adam had no doubt he just tried to glare her into submission. Henry announced that he and Blue will play each other, and it’ll be Ronan vs. Adam in the finals, and Adam climbed into the couch to watch the two of them kneel on the floor, narrowing their eyebrows at each other. 

Blue won. It was indisputable, watching Henry lying face down on the ground as Blue crowed in victory. Henry Cheng was an accomplished young man that would one day be running a large corporation, or a country, or possibly the other world, and he was easily defeated by small girls with good fashion sense and Noah Czerny, a ninety pound anemic. Why this why Ronan wept for the future?

Still crowing, Blue stood back up and promptly dropped herself on the seat of Ronan’s chair. She elbowed him in the thigh with little finesse, and with even less finesse, kicked Henry in the ribs. 

Ronan uncurled himself from where he was perched on the armchair and looked over at Adam, raising an eyebrow like he was daring him to be the first to stand, or kneel, or leave. 

Adam stood, then kneeled, and thought deeply about leaving. 

Ronan joined him on the floor as Blue and Henry moved to the couch behind them and smirked wider. “You ready, Parrish?” he muttered, eyes bright with the sort of dangerous look that usually resulted in a problem. 

“Bring it on,” Adam murmured back. 

“And.... Go!” Henry called out, and suddenly Ronan was leaning forward ever so slightly, eyebrows drawing together in an expression that made him look vicious, and Adam could hear his heartbeat roaring in his ears. He hovered for a few seconds, breathing so loud he’d swear that Noah in his fancy hotel halfway across the city could hear it, before leaning in a smudge. Ronan’s eyebrows were creeping even closer together, tense and so dramatic Adam almost wanted to laugh. Ronan’s eyebrows, he realized, could be described with the word dramatic and nothing else. 

What felt like minutes passed. Ronan leaned; Adam leaned; Ronan inched closer; Adam inched closer. Adam slid that centimeter further, and their foreheads touched. Ronan’s breath on Adam’s lips was warm and loud, and his lips looked softer than they should have, and- 

The door banged open, and Ronan jumped back. Adam froze, leaning uncomfortably forward, at the sudden lack of body heat, and Gansey strode through the door with three pizza boxes in hand. “Hello,” he told the room, then noticed the camera and Adam’s position on the floor. “Oh. Are you doing something?” 

“Not anymore,” Henry told him, leaping off the couch. “Adam is the clear winner, so we are all yours for pizza.” 

Gansey beamed at him, dropping all three boxes on the sofa next to Blue, and collapsed on her other side. Henry flopped on top of him, half on his lap and half the arm of the sofa, and busied himself with pizza. The smell of it flooded the living room- cheese and butter and maybe a little sausage, too. He nudged Gansey’s ankle with his elbow til a plate was passed down for him, and then Ronan comes out of the kitchen with a bird, lemonade, and four glasses. Adam can’t bring himself to look at him. Instead, he focuses on the pizza and Gansey’s cologne- overbearing in a mild, absent minded way, like he had just forgotten how much cologne constituted as a proper amount- and takes a bite of his pizza. 

It sticks to the top of his mouth, almost too hot to eat, but it takes his mind off Ronan and birds, and that, he thinks, is what really matters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who's back! it's me, in case you couldn't tell. i'm back, after like. too long. 
> 
> and also? that too long might also actually become wayyyyy too long, because i have school and have a couple other projects im working on. so. sorry! but also school is torture and i need to impose my own bedtime
> 
> ps blue was 110% the person who put bird facts in. she knows so many. why will no one talk to her about birds.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who's back after like two years, bitches???? that's right, it's me. i'm alive, just had my ass kicked. repeatedly. by lots of stuff. but i /am/ alive, and working on my wips!!!!
> 
> that's right, you're gonna be seeing more of me

“We should do a video in the bath,” Noah tells Adam, eyes light and strange in the afternoon sun. His hair looks practically white, slanted beams of afternoon sunlight falling on it, and his skin matches. 

From the living room couch, Henry nods. “We should,” he says, “but not now.” 

Noah twists towards him, shoulder leaning against the back of his chair, and blinks. “Yeah,” he says, and tips his head back. Sunlight shoots through his bangs and across the bridge of his nose. Adam takes another drink from his water bottle and returns to his Latin questions. Behind him, Henry taps his pen against the edge of his textbook, offbeat and thoughtless. 

The light moves over Noah’s laptop as Adam finishes Latin and shifts to calculus; the scratch of his pencil becomes taps at his calculator. He catalogues the rest of his work as he inputs equations, filling the empty slots with physics, debate, his required health work. After that he’s got a dinner to make -- probably just pasta, maybe chicken if there’s time? He has to water his plants and do his laundry and, if Henry insists, help him make a video in the bath. And he’s got to find a job somewhere, and the time for one, plus add in another art credit -- 

But as he finishes punching in numbers and writes down the answer, smiling a little, Henry hums tunelessly behind him and Noah melts into the sunlight, and all Adam has to do is finish the next problem. 

 

_From Henry’s video’s; “This is what i like to call a ‘’’’montage’’’’’’’’.”_

It starts with a shot of Ronan, sprawled across the couch, sandwich on his lap and book held above his head. Just a split second -- the scene changes before you can even see what he’s reading. 

 

Blue, Adam, and Gansey stand in the kitchen, all three laughing. Adam is grinning wide -- probably the widest the camera’s shown -- and Gansey is bent over, hands on his thighs. Blue is satisfied, like she pulled off a particularly good joke, but even she starts to giggle. Chainsaw shifts outside the window, and Adam’s plants flutter. 

(No one seems to notice the camera.) 

 

Henry and Ronan are in the bathroom. Perched on the edge of the bathtub, Henry is the camera’s main focus, but Ronan is visible standing over the sink, neatening the edges of his short, fuzzy hair. 

“I mean, what’s even the point of being a dance major if you’re gonna try and work in business? It’s not like a dance major’s gonna get you very far, and he’s taking a valuable spot that could be given to a sophomore who actually wants to go into the field! Some people claim that he only got in because his parents know someone in the Classics department, but c'mon, that’s bullshit. We don’t even have a real Classics department.” 

“Uh, actually, Cheng,” Ronan said, still focused on his reflection, “We do. At least three of the teachers have several fuckin’ pHD’s.” 

Henry is silent for a second, expression unseen. “You just made that up, didn’t you,” he says eventually, and Ronan cackles. 

 

Blue, surrounded by several stacks of books, concentrating on her computer screen. Her hair is pulled back with a headband, dark curls springing everywhere. 

 

The camera is high, hidden, in Ronan’s room, watching Noah, Ronan, and Gansey from maybe a shelf. Noah is spread across the bed, Ronan lounges with his back against it, and Gansey is in the desk chair, feet planted, facing the other two. Noah is absently running his hand across Ronan’s head as Gansey explains something, hands moving wildly, a mile a minute. Ronan’s eyes are quiet and focused, following Gansey like a cat with a laser. 

The sound is muffled, speaker covered by something, and there’s almost nothing audible except for a bass line, wiry in the background. 

 

Noah, staring up at the living room ceiling from his place on the couch. The big picture window halos the couch and casts his face into deep shadow, pale eyes piercing past to look up. His foot is tapping, slowly, steadily, on the arm of the couch. 

 

The camera’s shaky, like it's being walked with, and in front of it three backs are visible: Blue’s, small and brightly-clad; Noah’s, blond hair golden in the sun; and a little further ahead, Ronan’s, in dark tank top, tattoo spreading visibly across his shoulder blades. 

“So where are we going, Blue’s Clues?” Henry’s voice asks from behind the camera. “Lynch-Inch-Flinch?” 

Noah turns back to tell him, eyes glittering, “European History! It's Gansey’s favourite class but he doesn't even have it with us.” 

“You heard it hear first, folks,” Henry’s voice says, low and amused. “Dick van Gansey, possible future presidential candidate, is quite literally in love with European History.” 

“He wants to date Lorenzo Medici!” Blue shouts without looking back. 

Behind even Henry, Adam laughs. “He actually prefers English royalty,” he tells Blue, and his voice is thick with mid-afternoon sun and happiness. 

The camera’s angle falls towards a set of stairs -- Henry’s shoes tripping into view once in awhile -- and the sound goes muddy. Someone laughs, someone else yells. Ronan’s voice cuts over Noah’s, low belying fast. The camera pans back up, then down again, and then it turns off.

 

Craigslist, Adam discovers, is not a great place to find job listings. Neither is the personal ads, seeing as he’s been going through both of them for the past half hour and has find nothing. There were some thinly veiled references to… canoodling, but the Rules have, unfortunately, robbed him of that option. He’s only got two job sites he really thinks he can trust, and even those seem slightly shady. 

Instead of really doing anything, he hangs off the side of the his bed and listens to Noah and Ronan in the living room. 

They’re mostly talking about the campus religious services (Adam has already heard that it’s not fantastic and has no schedule for confession, or a Mass at any time other than dawn, or many services for non-Western denominations. Ronan is disgusted by the campus religious services), but sometimes Noah cuts into complain about one of his math teachers or some lacrosse douchebag. It’s mostly complaining, from what Adam can tell, but they might be watching a movie as they do it -- Noah keeps quoting things in the middle of a sentence. 

But then Noah breaks from his story about more tyrannical teaching to say, almost offhand, “But, I mean, your rules are messing up all our lives. Yours included.” 

Ronan scoffs, but doesn’t reply. 

“Seriously,” Noah presses. “You don’t have to talk about it, but there are several levels of this that are fucked up.” 

Again, Ronan doesn’t reply, but some scuffles indicate he just tried to shove Noah off the couch. 

“Hey, douchebag,” Noah says, laughing a little. “I am trying to be supportive! Is this how you repay me?” 

Adam pulls himself and rolls onto his back, staring at the ceiling as Ronan, from the sound of it, picks Noah up. Just a room away, they’re both laughing, Ronan’s low and delighted, and Noah’s just helpless giggling. There’s nothing on the less shady of Adam’s two websites, nothing for a relatively inexperienced college student without anything more than a bike to get him to a job. In low voices, they’re talking now, still laughing a little, but it’s quiet and almost serious. 

Nothing on the other site, either. Adam rolls onto his stomach. 

“Well, _I_ don’t like it!” Noah’s voice says. “Despite the reasoning, it’s still shitty, and dumb, and Gansey’s right -- this isn’t going to end well.” 

Plugging his earbuds into his computer, Adam turns on one of Blue’s playlists. When he wants to focus on something other than schoolwork, he usually tries to look for a shouty, pumped up mix, but lately she’s been into more guitar heavy grunge-type stuff, and it shows. Still, he listens, because he made her sit through a new EP last week when she just got back from work. 

 

They’re seated around the dining room table, extra seats crammed in to fit six. Elbows are now permanently jammed into sides, because Henry forced them all onto mostly on side so the camera could see everyone. 

“-- and that’s Cards Against Humanity: the Challenge Version!” Henry tells his audience of a lens, grinning, because it’s pretty clear he’s the one who wanted this bonding session. “And we have our dear friends Noah and Gansey to help, because I’d rather have two judges than let Lynch decide anything.” 

“The feeling is mutual,” Ronan tells him, mouth tilted, and Gansey beams at the camera. 

“We’ll do our best!” he says, and beside him, Noah nods. 

They start. Adam is next to Blue and Ronan, who are both probably trying to see his cards, and who are both human space heaters. The heat part is nice; the peeking, not as much. Even so, he does well -- Gansey laughs at his, every time. That’s not much of a bar, but he also got a couple of low laughs from Ronan, and Henry always seems delighted by them. Blue’s are a little odd and would probably be hilarious to her family, and Henry’s are just bad. Ronan’s are always a surprise. 

They break for food, surprise takeout from Noah and Henry, then return to their seats. It’s getting fierce, choices on the table in seconds, and Henry has to draw out when it’s clear he can’t keep up. Above them, the light outside grows darker and darker, until their window is spotted with the city’s excess. Ronan is warm on Adam’s left. 

Blue withdrawals, partially because she has work the next morning, but also because the last time she got competitive with Adam it did not end well. She turns off the kitchen light as she does, and the shadows settle across Noah’s face like one of Henry’s hydrating sheet masks. Gansey drops out to nap on the couch -- he’ll give Noah a piggyback ride to the dorms, but not if this lasts until midnight, and Noah would do a lot for a late-night, crosstown piggyback ride. 

In low, soft voices, Ronan and Noah are talking. The night is too late for Adam to really pay attention, but it’s something cryptic and terse, even as they both laugh at the game. 

Ronan’s voice is warm when he talks to Noah -- still gravely, but a little more like what he acted like with his younger brother. Matthew’s planning on following him to college, much to Declan’s chagrin, but Ronan would probably tell him to aim for an East Coast Ivy or something. 

Their living room light has been replaced with a lamplight, and Ronan’s fuzz is lit through by the warmth of it. 

Gansey almost went to one of them, but instead he came with Blue and Ronan, and Adam decided on the city with the best poli-sci and pre-law majors they had, and no one was really sure what Henry got out of it. 

Quietly, Noah giggles at one of Adam’s choices. Ronan glances over and smiles, then, abruptly, stands. “Noah,” he says, voice still low for Gansey’s sake, “I’ve got to go to bed. Don’t stay up too late, yeah?” 

And with that, he’s striding off into the darkness of the hallway. 

As a door creaks open, Noah smiles at Adam, soft and a little tired. “You wanna go to bed, too?” he asks, and Adam is struck with a memory of the first day they met -- Aglionby math class, Adam’s first year, when Noah perched on the desk behind his and asked about the book he was reading. 

“No,” Adam tells him. “I’ll help you wake Gansey up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just to be clear: adam was not really friends with henry in hs, but he was with gansey and noah and, by extension, ronan. he and blue were "neither of us are rich but we're hanging out with these bougie fuckers" buds and it blossomed into a beautiful platonic romance. blue was closer to noah and then gansey, and she and ronan had a vibe that was like "ur cool but i'll never admit it and don't want to have any conversations with you that aren't intensely sarcastic and bitter". henry was close with gansey but when they all moved to the same town, they all got somewhat closer, and when blue got the chance to get an cheap, fantastic apartment summer of junior year she signed the lease with no hesitation and /then/ found some roommates. unfortunately gansey and noah were travelling for a while and didn't move in, and then when they were gone it was found out that the others can't actually function without them without becoming anxiety ridden messes who do dumb, impulsive shit and then get it signed by a lawyer

**Author's Note:**

> alternate title: ravishing restricted ravens
> 
> ... yes i just googled synonyms for lovely and losers


End file.
